University of Peloponnese, Greece and CITS, Corinth, 7--10th July 2020

This conference will have a hybrid form of teleconferencing for those unable to attend but wanting to participate and on campus conference with sessions, workshops and book presentations. The conference will be livestreamed.

Languages of the Conference: English, Greek, Spanish, French, Turkish, Portuguese. All other languages will be translated to English and Greek. Scroll down to read.

ENGLISH:

It has now been decades that teachers and students have been resisting the global attack on education by attempt to raise consciousness about issues of concern, and engage in collective actions, including rallies, protests, lawsuits, letter-writing campaigns, speaking at public meetings and on talk radio, and so forth (Niesz, 2018). All across the globe the corporate takeover of governance that is attempting to turn education into a private enterprise is met with dissent and massive mobilization. “The challenge that we now face is to find ways to imagine possibilities to escape the fatalistic and restrictive force on us, while accepting that "there is [a] duty, for example, to never, under any circumstances, accept or encourage fatalist positions" (Freire, 2011).

Teachers are the actors in emancipatory class struggles. Teachers are not fighting for better wages only; it is only one front of the struggle. They are fighting against privatization of education, they are fighting for smaller classes, for more teaching and better working conditions for the children and themselves. Teachers know that if the Neoliberal project succeeds in education, then the future of society would be affected. Since most teachers are women, this struggle is a feminist one too (Philips, S. 2019)

Teachers unions have been under attack because throughout the world they are the most significant barriers to neoliberalism’s project implementation for privatization of education. Teachers and students from Oaxaca Mexico and Chile to Greece, Spain and even in the heart of Metropolis, the USA have seen the devastating outcomes of neoliberalism. Across the globe, teachers in many countries across five continents are taking part in a strike movement of unprecedented international proportions. Just this month teachers strikes spread across the five continents (London, E. 2019). In Latin America the resistance has been huge. And nearly one million teachers struck across the Argentina in a 72 hour strike demanding massive wage increases and an end to privatization efforts by the government of President Mauricio Macri. In Brazil officials are denying striking teachers their pay and threatening to replace them with strikebreakers to rob teachers of wages and pension rights. In Colombia, teachers fight against the government of Ivan Duqué to enforce a National Development Plan crafted by the International Monetary Fund that will slash funding for K-12 education, school transportation and in-school nursing and healthcare. Meanwhile Colombian for-profit and private universities have proliferated as a result of financing from the World Bank while public institutions are dried out.

In Africa, police in Morocco’s capital Rabat have used water cannons to disperse thousands of young teachers protesting for better work conditions. They had been chanting "liberty, dignity, social justice". Teachers across the country have been striking for three consecutive weeks. In Mali an ongoing strike has “paralyzed the Malian school system” and threatens to cancel classes for the year. In Kenya over 180,000 teachers have repeatedly authorized national strike action across Africa’s seventh largest country. In Ivory Coast tens of thousands of primary and pre-school school teachers refused a back-to-work order by the union and continued a powerful strike now in its seventh week.

In Europe resistance is similar. In Dublin Teachers Association members, 98% voted to authorize a strike if a contract settlement that honors Dublin students is not reached. In Poland, according to the Gazeta Wyborcza, teachers from all levels of education will begin a strike of unlimited duration beginning in April. As is the case in many countrie, “This shows that the struggle of the teachers for better working conditions can potentially become a catalyst for the struggle of the entire working class in Poland” (Kozlowski, 2019). Teachers in the Netherlands, from two unions, representing primary and secondary school teachers and university lecturers, joined together in a strike on 15 March, 2019. In the first joint industrial action of teachers across grade levels, they demanded more funding for the entire education sector. Over 40,000 educators from all over the country participated in a rally in Hague. More than half of the primary schools in the country were closed. It is common that teachers are in solidarity with other teachers. Teachers of Furzedown primary school in Wandsworth, south London struggling to make ends meet because of funding shortfalls have volunteered to take a £7,000-a-year pay cut in order to save the jobs of their colleagues.

In USA, as Lois Weiner observes, “The victory Los Angeles teachers and their union, United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), won in their contract fight with Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has the potential to change the world, as the Chicago Teachers Union did in its landmark 2012 strike (Weiner, 2019). Teachers across the country are discussing taking strike action, including in Sacramento, California; Fremont, California; San Ramon, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in the states of Indiana, Oklahoma, Arizona, Alaska, South Carolina and Kentucky. Teachers are demanding raises in Mississippi, Louisiana, Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia and New Mexico (Phillips, 2019). In Ontario, Canada, an estimated 100,000 elementary and high school students walked out of their classrooms in protest against the provincial government's recent cuts to education (O'Neil, 2019).

As Compton and Weiner (2008) say, “Teachers unions are grappling with the increasing privatization of education services, the introduction of business “quality control” measures into education, and the requirement that education produce the kind of minimally trained and flexible workforce that corporations require to maximize their profits”. By doing so they are fighting for the soul of education and the future prosperity of society. Indeed, unions work as a form of social capital, providing a network of resources that enable teachers to protect themselves from overt forms of exploitation . As Paulo Freire (2011) says, “the future is seen not as inexorable but as something that is constructed by people engaged together in life, in history. It's the knowledge that sees history as possibility and not as already determined. The world is not finished. It is always in the process of becoming”.

In economically advanced and underdeveloped countries alike, teachers are fighting for the same cause: the defense of public education. Teachers globally are confronted with the same enemies who demand to take over education through cuts and privatization. Education is the basis of any society and the threat of corporate takeover is a threat to the future of society and the future of the world. Since the attack is global, it needs to be addressed internationally by teachers and families who are affected by the attack.

Ainsi, loin de prétendre à une marche inéluctable vers un modèle néolibéral dans lequel l’éducation est instrumentalisée au service du capital, cette conférence met de l’avant la possibilité pour les acteurs d’infléchir la trajectoire historique à la faveur d’un projet de société inclusif et démocratique. Paulo Freire (2011) mentionne que «the future is seen not as inexorable but as something that is constructed by people engaged together in life, in history. Its knowledge that sees history as possibility and not as already determined. The world is not finished. It is always the process of becoming».

In an attempt to combine theory and praxis, the conference will have two different groupings; plenary sessions and workshops. It is our intention to bring academics and Teachers' Unionists together in both.

To propose a paper, please send an abstract of up to 250-word abstract for a paper and a 500-word proposal for a panel by email no later than 7th March 2020.Please include a photo and a very short bio in your submission. Please also state in the subject title of your email either “Paper” or “Panel Proposal” Each panel should include 3 papers at least.

For Teachers Unionists there will be workshops, with ability to connect with skype. Please contact at
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The final papers accepted after peer review will be published in the Conference Proceedings and international books.

Deadline for abstracts-7th March 2020

Send abstracts to:
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and
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

To propose a paper, please send an abstract of up to 250-word abstract for a paper and a 500-word proposal for a panel by email no later than 7th March 2020.Please include a photo and a very short bio in your submission. Please also state in the subject title of your email either “Paper” or “Panel Proposal” Each panel should include 3 papers at least.

For Teachers Unionists there will be workshops, with ability to connect with skype. Please contact at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The final papers accepted after peer review will be published in the Conference Proceedings and international books.

Deadline for abstracts-7th March 2020

Send abstracts to:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
and
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it